While Showtime executives do not traditionally release ratings figures,
early estimates for this past weekend’s historic “Strikeforce and M-1
Global: Fedor vs. Werdum” co-promoted event put the average Showtime
viewership at approximately 550,000 viewers when including DVR and on-demand figures.

MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) has learned from industry sources that
Showtime experienced a ratings jump of 56 percent for the show against
May’s “Strikeforce: St. Louis” event.

As is typical for mixed martial arts broadcasts, the viewership
increased throughout the broadcast, and the ratings peaked during the
main event between Fedor Emelianenko and Fabricio Werdum with a 2.1
household rating and more than 700,000 viewers when factoring in DVR and on-demand data.

The sources also indicated that Showtime executives are pleased with the results and that “Fedor vs. Werdum” now ranks as the third-highest-rated Strikeforce card in Showtime’s history behind the August 2009 “Carano vs. Cyborg” event and January’s “Strikeforce: Miami.”

Exact quarter-hour figures were not revealed.

“Strikeforce and M-1 Global: Fedor vs. Werdum” featured a four-bout main card, but the event will always be remembered for its featured contest in which Brazilian submission ace Werdum shocked the world by handing Russian heavyweight Emelianenko his first loss in nearly 10 years.

Spike TV countered this past Saturday’s co-promoted “Fedor vs. Werdum” event with a re-broadcast of UFC 113. Ratings figures for that show are expected to be available later today.

The premium cable channel Showtime is available in approximately 18 million homes, though as Showtime Sports Director of Communications Chris DeBlasio told MMAjunkie.com following this past August’s “Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg” event, comparing numbers between Showtime and Spike TV is a difficult proposition.

“I wouldn’t say it’s irrelevant, but the only fair way to compare the UFC’s show on Spike versus the show that we did on Saturday is to compare apples to apples, which is to compare our ratings points in our universe versus the ratings points in Spike’s universe,” DeBlasio said in August. “You know what those numbers are, and you know what the difference in viewership is. But when you compare, our rating was higher than their rating. That’s based on the ratio of subscribers that we have and based on the ration of subscribers that Spike has. As far as (Showtime vice president) Ken (Hershman) and all the executives at Showtime are concerned, that’s a ratings win.

“[Ratings] are a great guide and a benchmark to see what our subscribers like and don’t like, but we don’t live and die by them. That’s for advertising-based networks. They have to sell their product to advertisers. We have to sell our product to subscribers.”